Can This Marriage Be Saved

ISO Can This Marriage Be Saved?
tears and thereby prolong the unpleasantness. As it happened,
Chad's seemingly mysterious reticence on the subject of his work-
ing hours was not mysterious at all. He knew that if he told Ava he
was leaving early, she would immediately take charge of his leisure
and load him with errands to be performed on the way home; if
she learned he was working late, she would arrange that his over-
time earnings come under her control.
Any observant acquaintance could have told Ava that she was
bossy and domineering, but she would not have believed it. Ava's
answers to a test of temperament which is taken by all our clients
indicated that in a random crowd of 100 people, including both
men and women, she would rank at the top in aggressiveness. The
result of an impersonal and scientific test disturbed and convinced
her as no words from us could have done. Armed with this
knowledge about herself, she reviewed and discussed her past his-
tory with fresh insight.
Before her marriage to Chad, Ava had been engaged to three
other young men, and in each case she had done the original choos-
ing and most of the subsequent chasing. (Although Chad covered
thousands of miles during the courtship, her telephone calls
prompted his journeys from the desert to the hospital.) No man
whom she had ever attracted or who attracted her, Ava finally ad-
mitted, had been notable for either stability or strength. In -fact
none of her previous admirers had measured up to Chad in charm,
integrity, and ability. There was a strong likelihood that, if she di-
vorced Chad, she would drift into marriage with a man of the same
type but less worthwhile. Once Ava recognized this probability,
she was willing to make changes in herself to preserve the marriage.
Ava acknowledged that Chad's boyishness and need to be looked
after had appealed to her, and that her maternal qualities—her in-
terest in his comfort and welfare—must have appealed to him. For
purely conventional reasons—"A man should be strong"—she had
tossed away personality assets her husband treasured. On the eve-
ning she followed him into the park and was tempted to join him